Saturday, October 6, 2012

The thought behind handing our kids a granola bars is that it is healthy, right?! Better than a cookie at least?! Unfortunately, the list of ingredients in most pre-packed bars contain more that a few words I cannot pronounce. And possibly worse: many contain high fructose corn syrup.

But my kids love them and they are an easy, portable snack.

Determined to find a better way to satisfy their hunger and my need to stay out of the kitchen at snack time, I discovered granola bars are quite easy to make at home . . . with ingredients you have on hand . . . and without much fuss. Yes, it requires baking, but baking one or two batches may satisfy snack cravings for weeks to come!

This recipe was originally featured on Weelicious {photo credit too}. I tweaked my version as to allow for the fact that I only had 1/4, not a 1/2 cup, of honey handy, and no unsweetened coconut. Additionally, I'm trying to incorporate healthy oils so I opted for coconut oil opposed to canola oil.

The kids adored my version so much I'm not sure I'll ever try the original.

Directions

Preheat oven to 325 F.

Combine the first 5 {the dry} ingredients in a bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together the oil, vanilla extract, honey and agave nectar. Pour the wet ingredients over the oat mixture and stir to combine.